While it's not uncommon for married couples to go into business together, on this Valentine's Day we take a look at those who started a business inspired by their own love.

Below:

If you've ever been late to work because you couldn't break away
from your lover, you may have wished that the two of you worked
together. Many married entrepreneurs have tried and many have
succeeded at this goal. But few have launched products or
companies that were actually inspired by love.

As two writers in love, J.S. Fletcher and Kathy Newbern started a
business creating personalized romance novels. "Many of our
novels are inspired by our travels," Fletcher says. "But, truth
be told, they're mostly inspired by our love for each other."

Fletcher and Newbern have written 20 of the novels and hired
contractors to create 29 more books. Buyers can change 26 details
about the featured couples to correspond to themselves. For
example, in "Another Day in Paradise," [your name here] and her
lover are pampered at the Paradise Lagoon. In "Missed Tryst," the
lovers run a private detective agency when they aren't dancing to
[your favorite song here.] Couples can also add their eye and
hair color, best friends' names, car model, hometown and favorite
fragrance. They also can choose between "wild" or "mild" versions
of the novels.

Fletcher and Newbern decided to get into the business when they
were dating and attended a PR conference in North Carolina.
Newbern revealed to a panel that she had secretly written a
romance novel, prompting another attendee to comment that it
would be great if people could read about themselves in a steamy
book. On the ride home, Fletcher and Newbern outlined "Another
Day in Paradise" on the back of an envelope they found in the
glove compartment.

The couple also did freelance travel writing while producing the
romance novels. Then in 2002, a People magazine article brought
the recognition they needed to start working full-time on
YourNovel.com. They sell their novels in all formats, with
e-books accounting for about 10 percent of their revenue.

Although sales weakened along with the economy, Fletcher and
Newbern remain committed to YourNovel.com. "In so many ways, the
relationship inspired the business: We are two people still madly
in love," says Fletcher. "We created a business around putting
people in love together in a book. And we get to do that as a
husband-wife team."

Lalla and Rinaldo Brutoco were organic farmers in Ojai,
California, when a few problems started getting in the way of
their intimacy. They decided to seek a solution that eventually
turned into a business.

Lalla was suffering from bladder and yeast infections that made
life--and sex--uncomfortable. As an organic farmer's wife, she
didn't like the synthetic lubricants on the market. "Me being
interested in alternatives and Rinaldo being something of a
scientist and an organic farmer, we decided we would investigate
aloe as a healing agent," Lalla says.

The Brutocos found one variant of aloe that was reported to have
medicinal qualities and began planting it on their farm. The
liquid from the plant healed Lalla's infections and acted as a
moisturizer. "Lalla and I have been married for 30 years and we
keep the romantic spark alive," Rinaldo says.

The product also turned out to be an effective lubricant, leaving
no mess as it was absorbed into the skin. "I sent my husband on a
mission to put this in a bottle for the sisterhood," Lalla says.
Rinaldo found a way to preserve the gel in a bottle without using
preservatives, sticking to the organic parameters the couple had
set.

Aloe Cadabra went on sale in 2010, and the couple first promoted
it to the "sisterhood" – Lalla's female friends and their
friends, who spread the word through whispers. Soon, the
promotion got much louder as Glamour, Elle and
several health and wellness publications ran articles about Aloe
Cadabra. It's now sold for about $10 a bottle in 3,000 stores in
the U.S. and Canada, including Whole Foods, Walgreen's and
GNC.

Ronnie and Lamar Tyler were thrilled to find one another after
some false starts. They blended their families from earlier
relationships, and their marriage thrived. But it sometimes
seemed as if they were the only happily married couple in the
world.

Everything they heard about marriage in the media and in their
community was negative. "Divorce rates are high, and people are
having a lot of children out of wedlock," Ronnie says. "All of
that makes it important that there are people like us out there
promoting positive images and showing people that happily married
couples do exist, that marriage is great if you put the work
in."

So, the couple started Blackandmarriedwithkids.com because they
loved being married and wanted to try blogging about their
feelings. As IT managers, they were Web savvy, but they didn't
expect their blog to take off the way it did. Friends and family
have spread the word about the blog, and the couple does guest
blogging on bigger sites to attract readers. On their site, they
sell banner ads, DVDs of their documentaries about successful or
healed marriages in the black community, and books on marriage by
other authors.

The couple says Blackandmarriedwithkids.com attracts 150,000 to
200,000 visitors a month and their revenue doubled last year. For
the first time last year, the Tylers worked full-time on their
business, while also parenting four kids. "We had to write about
something that we were both passionate about and that we would
want to write about 10 years later," Ronnie says.